U.S. success helps NBC win, too

NBC has needed a sizable U.S. medal haul at the Winter Olympics to get the American public to stop laughing at it over the Tonight Show flap involving Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien .

NBC has needed a sizable U.S. medal haul at the Winter Olympics to get the American public to stop laughing at it over the Tonight Show flap involving Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien .

The network's prime-time audience has risen 20 percent in 2010 over the Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, four years ago, hoisting the network from last place among the four U.S. broadcast networks to third among viewers ages 18 to 49 - those keenly sought by advertisers.

On Feb. 17, a day in which the United States won six medals, the Vancouver games became the first competitor in six years to beat Fox's American Idol in viewership.

"NBC needed a win," said Bill Carroll, a vice president at the New York media-buying firm Katz Television Group. "They've been taking it on the chin for a while."

Also benefiting from a U.S. team that (as of yesterday) stood two medals short of its record 34 in 2002 is Visa, the world's largest payments network and an Olympics sponsor.

NBC still might lose money on the Vancouver games - for which it paid $820 million, a Winter Olympics record - but network executives are now trimming the estimated loss, according to a source.

"If the $250 million loss you were projecting becomes a $200million loss," Carroll said, "that's a home run."

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